Grammar Lessons Pronouns 1

First Person In the subjective case, the singular form of the first person is “I,” and the plural form is “we.”subjective “I” and “we” are in the subjective case because either one can be used as the subject of a sentence. You constantly use these two pronouns when you refer to yourself and when you refer to yourself with others. Here’s a sentence containing both: 2

Example: I (first-person singular) look forward to my monthly book club meeting. We (first-person plural) are currently reading Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda. other singular first person pronouns include “me” (objective case) and “my” and “mine” (possessive case). Plural first person pronouns are : “us” (objective case) and “our” and “ours” (possessive case). 3

Consider this Sentence and fill in the table I asked Sam to help me with my Happy New Year mailing, and we somehow got the project done early during the last week of December in spite of our packed schedules. I’m quite proud of us and ended up calling the project ours instead of mine. 4 First Person (singular, plural) Subjective Case Objective Case Possessive Case ?????

First Person (singular, plural) Subjective CaseObjective CasePossessive Case I, weme, usmy/mine, our/ours 5

Second Person You use the second-person point of view to address the reader The second person uses the pronouns “you,” “your,” and “yours.” We use these three pronouns when addressing one, or more than one, person. Second person is often appropriate for messages, presentations, and business and technical writing 6

Second Person continued: This is a singular second-person sentence: Grandma, Before you go to London, remember to leave your keys under the doormat. I’ll miss you. Sincerely yours, Anna This is a plural second-person sentence: Class, you need to be in your seats when the principal arrives. Tom and Jerry, I’m speaking to you as well. By the way, are these comic books yours? (Regionally speaking, in the American South you might hear a teacher say, “Class, y’all need to be in your seats….” “Y’all” is a contraction of “you all.”) 7

Second person exercise.. Second Person (singular & plural) Subjective CaseObjective CasePossessive Case you your/yours 8

Third Person The third person is the most common point of view used in fiction writing and is the traditional form for academic writing. Authors of novels and composers of papers use “he,” “she,” or “it” when referring to a person, place, thing, or idea. The following quotations include the third- person singular subjective cases and are from the opening lines of three novels: 9

Examples of third person Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested” (5). “He” is in the singular third-person masculine subjective case. “Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person” (6). “She” is in the singular third- person feminine subjective case. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” (7). “It” is in the singular third-person neuter subjective case. 10

singular third-person neuter subjective case. In addition to having a singular and a plural case, you may have already noticed that the third person has genders and a neuter category. 11 Third Person (singular) Subjective Case Objective Case Possessive Case he (masculine) she (feminine) it (neuter) him (masculine) her (feminine) it (neuter) his/his (masculine) her/hers (feminine) its/its (neuter)